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oa Defining Natural Trends in Current Environmental and Climatic Change Based on Comparative Studies of Interglacial Successions
- Publisher: European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers
- Source: Conference Proceedings, 18th International Conference Monitoring of Geological Processes and Ecological Condition of the Environment, Apr 2025, Volume 2025, p.1 - 5
Abstract
A new high-resolution multidisciplinary approach to parallel studies of the last interglacial and the present interglacial successions has been applied to the most stratigraphically complete sections in different landscapes belts in Ukraine. Thirteen short-term phases (∼1000 years in duration) were established in the first 13,000 years of the last interglacial, which is a time period corresponding to the elapsed part of the Holocene. Twenty-two phases (∼500 years in duration) were established for the Holocene which demonstrate shorter cycles within the ∼1000 years phases. A regular pattern in landscape and climatic dynamics during both interglacials has been established, and it enables the position of the current phase to be fixed within an interglacial environmental succession. The current state of the environment corresponds to the end of the early warm and humid phase of the second optimum of an interglacial, and it will last for about 400 years. Thus, current extraordinary warming is the result of the combined impact of natural and anthropogenic factors. If the natural trends were to be dominant in environmental development, the next phase will be more arid than the present, and transition to the much cooler boreal climatic system will occur in ∼2000 years.